Packing

The aspect about moving that most people hate is the packing.  No matter how organized you think you are, when you get down to it, there are still a lot of items to put into boxes and transport somewhere.

One of the (many) great things about joining the Foreign Service is that you are packed.  Professional movers come to your house and pack your things. It sounds wonderful and I'm sure it is.  I am definitely looking forward to not having to get everything safely stowed away in boxes.  

But - even though this great team of people will come to my house in a few weeks to pack up all of our stuff and ship it to our new home, I still have to get it all organized.  And I don't mean just organized in my head with an idea of what goes where.  I have to organized things in piles (really rooms). And I have to inventory everything.  Yikes!

I have to organize stuff into what we'll take with us on the plane (clothes, things we'll need right away, etc.).  Then there's the stuff that will come to our new home fairly quickly - maybe within 2 weeks.  And then there's the stuff that we won't see until we get to our new post - which might not be for many months.  And then, there's the stuff that will stay in storage for years - the things we don't want to risk losing.  Lots of different choices for lots of different things.

Some of the stuff is pretty easy.  Of course we'll need our clothes.  But - will we be in DC long enough to need our winter clothes?  And what about holiday decorations?  I just put away all the Christmas stuff.  The place we'll be living in DC doesn't have a ton of room and I don't want to fill it up with stuff we don't need.  And then there are the kitchen items.  The place in DC is furnished, so we shouldn't need pots and pans.  But that said, I'm a cook.  I love cooking and it relaxes me.  So, bring the Cuisinart and the KitchenAid but not the crockpot or the bread maker?  Yes to the pressure cooker (how else would I make beans for fish tacos?)  So many decisions.

Then there's the stuff for long term storage - the items we won't take to post.  Again - some stuff is easy.  The kids baby stuff that I've kept to pass on to their kids - definitely long term storage.  But photos are hard.  I want to have them with me but they're probably safer remaining in storage.  Digital photos are easy, of course, but the older photos. . .  And then the artwork that makes our home our home - what to do about that.  So many decisions and which is the right choice? 

It's so easy to quickly become obsessed with making the right decision.  Wanting to know how it's going to be, what I / we will want 6, 12, 18 months from now.  But then that brings me back to crux of all of this.  We just don't know.  This is a lot about letting go and seeing where life takes you.

And that's the adventure.

Getting the Call

I got the call this week.  The call that I had been waiting for and hoping for for just over a year now.  On Monday, I got an email from the State Department inviting me to join the 160th Junior Officer Class. 

And it's been quite a week since then.  On Tuesday, I reserved our place to live; on Wednesday I registered the kids at their new school; on Thursday I scheduled our packout date. And today I've been wading through masses of information.

It has been quite a long journey over the past year.  Lots and lots of waiting, nail-biting, studying, and preparing.  And now it's a whirlwind.  We have about a month to get our home ready to be packed, to say goodbye to friends and family and to move our entire family to Washington, DC.

This time last year K. and I were both busy looking for jobs.  We had been out of work since our restaurant-movie theater business of over 12 years closed due to the recession.  Big life changes give you an opportunity to really think about what you want.  I've always wanted to live overseas with my family and really get to know a country - or ideally several countries.  My favorite part of our business was the community building aspect.  As I looked for jobs and thought about what I wanted to do with my life now that I had to start over, I came across information about becoming a Foreign Service Officer.  The more I learned about it, the more excited I was.  K. agreed that we could give it a try.

So, I filled out the application and began the process.  There are many blogs that describe the process.  Suffice it to say that it's a long shot.  There are many tests and many hurdles to pass and at any step of the way you can not pass and have to start over.  I certainly wasn't holding my breath that this would all work out.  I kept looking for jobs while I did my best to prepare for the various hurdles.  My daughter was so excited that I felt it was important to remind her that very few people every make it all the way.  She said, "Mommy - you just gotta have faith!"  I love the optimism of kids - and her faith has been justified - we're about to start on our next great adventure.

Secrets of Adulthood

Good friends of ours recently celebrated the 18th birthday of their oldest child.  To honor the occasion, another good friend had the wonderful idea of collecting our own version of "Secrets of Adulthood" (from The Happiness Project). 

Here are mine:

1. Just in Time - things have a way of showing up just when you really need them - not when you thought you did.  Be patient, relax and see advice #2
2. Have Faith - it may not turn out the way you think it should at the time, but it will be fine - and may even take you to new places that expand your horizons.
3. Follow the Instructions - if you really do, it usually comes out the way its supposed to.
4. When in doubt, take a deep breath, get grounded, and then listen to the teacher inside you.
5. Stay on it - the little baby steps really add up.  And can create momentum.
6. Participation makes life more fun.
7. Absolutely nothing can change or take away the love that your family and real friends feel for you.  And that is all that is important.
8. Ask for what you want.  Get clear, be concise and direct - and use your words to ask for what you want - whether it's to a person or to the universe - put it out there.  If you don't ask - no one will know what you want.

These last few years have been really hard for so many families and communities.  The impact of the economy has pushed people to the edge.  I have had occasion to rely on all of my "secrets" time and again.  They are what has gotten me through.

And so it begins . . .

I'm not really a writer and while I've enjoyed reading other people's blogs, it hadn't ocurred to me to start one of my own.  But then I came across the letters I had written to my grandfather when K. and I were building our theater.  Reading those brought it all back to me and it was wonderful to have that record - both of the beginnings of our business, and the beginnings of our relationship.

Sojourn means a temporary stay, or to stay somewhere temporarily.  I feel as though I've had many sojourns in my life.  There are, of course, the ones we all share - growing up, high school and college years, etc.  After college, it seems as though I've had so many different experiences - either linked with a particular job or career field - chef, entrepreneur, non-profit organizations; or with a location - Berkeley, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.  The worlds, or sojourns, can seem incredibly varied and at times even unrelated.  But they are all aspects of me.

Going forward, I'm hoping to write about the changes and experiences that are going on, and to also record some of the experiences that have happened in the recent past.  It's been a wild roller-coaster these last few years.

Pop has since moved on from this world, but I like the idea of writing down what's going on in this life and my sojourns to come.